Exploring life one taste at a time.

“I grill, therefore I am.”
Alton Brown

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love all things spicy. No really. I do. I saw a version of this alfredo sauce in a jar and though, “I bet I can make that”. So I ‘googled’ and tested, and tested more. I wrote everything I did as I did it while cooking. However I did leave out the helpful tip about using real oven mittens when trying to handle hot peppers. Take caution my friends. Other than that enjoy this simple sauce that takes you to new levels in a not so hard way. Impress family or friends with your culinary skills! I’ll keep your secret on how easy it was to make.

Roasted Poblano Pepper Alfredo Sauce

3 poblano peppers, roasted skins peeled & 1/2 of a red bell pepper

1 clove garlic

4 c milk, heavy cream, or half and half

1 medium onion, diced

1/3 c flour

4 tbsp butter

1 tsp of sugar

1/2 c grated Parmesan (Romano or Grana Padano can substitute)

Pepper

Olive oil

Roast the peppers in the oven, grill (I used the grill) cool and remove skins and seeds.

Once they are cool, food processor and pulse peppers and garlic, take caution not to over pulse, you want the peppers to still be a tad on the chunky side, think salsa style.

In a medium-size pot, sauté onions in 2 tbsp olive oil, over medium heat until they soften, add in butter. When butter is completely melted, add flour, at the point you would want to stir using a whisk at a slow and constant pace and add milk.

Whisk until sauce until there are no lumps.

Add poblano peppers and continue to whisk often and allow mixture to thicken.

Cook your favorite pasta according to directions, and server over pasta.

(I also served ours with grilled chicken that was lightly seasoned with salt and pepper cooked with olive oil)

You know when you have one of those weeks where nothing goes right? Well, I’ve had that over an month now.

Okay now that I’m done with the pity party….let’s talk food. As a busy mommy sometimes I have to take short cuts and not make things from scratch. I know how dare I! Anyways,….sometimes the pre-made items aren’t all that bad. Here is a step by step and recipe on how to make the roll-ups.

What you will need:

8 Ounces of Cream Cheese Room Temperature

1 Container of Italian “tomato sauce”, I used Classico

1 Pound of Ground Beef

Italian Seasonings

Garlic Powder

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (One bag)

Olive Oil

** Make it vegetarian by eliminating the ground beef or using imitation crumble beef**

Kroger had Classico sauces on sale last week so I picked up a few containers of sauce and was surprised by how much I enjoyed them. The flavor I used in this recipe (and enjoyed the most) was the Florentine spinach and cheese. To make these roll ups first get some regular lasagna noodles and cook them al dente. Once pasta is cooked drain and cool. Lay pasta out length wise and cut all the pasta in half, just as pictured above.

Next, in a bowl mix a 8 ounce block of cream cheese with 3 teaspoons of pre-mixed Italian seasons (can be purchased at any grocery store where all the regular seasonings are) and 1 teaspoon of garlic powder. Set mixture aside.

In a medium sized pan cook ground beef, drain excess oil.

In the pan mix tomato sauce and meat. Warm sauce and meat on low.

Pre-heat over at 350*

Next create roll-ups! Just like pictured below.

You can use whatever pan you have, square, rectangle, circle they all work. Fill it with roll-ups. Once it is full of roll-ups spoon the meat and sauce over the roll-ups. Make sure to cover all the roll-ups. Sprinkle cheese on top of entire pan, on this part you can put as much or as little as you wish.

Bake in the oven until all the cheese is melted, mine took roughly about 30 minutes.

Cool, serve and enjoy!

PS – My family ate these before I could get a final picture, mommy wasn’t a happy camper but they enjoyed the meal.

** Classico did not sponsor nor pay me to use their products all my opinions on the products are my own and in no way were influenced by the company**